


What do you want from me?

by Cryptonian



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: Angst, Denial of Feelings, Endgame Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Epic Bromance, Friendship, Goodbyes, Losers Club (IT) Friendship, Love Triangles, M/M, Mentions of the book, Post-Pennywise (IT), Regret, Richie Tozier is a Little Shit, Sad Richie Tozier, Sloppy Makeouts, Slow Burn, Sonia Kaspbrak's A+ Parenting, Temporarily Unrequited Love, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2019-11-12 19:06:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18016649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cryptonian/pseuds/Cryptonian
Summary: Eddie still wants Richie, but Richie just wants popularity and those two things won't make for a good relationship.Eddie's a cool kid now and Richie can't seem to keep him off his mind. He thinks about Eddie everyday, but not for love quite yet.





	1. His world

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This is my first fanfic I'm posting on here so I hope you enjoy it for the first part! Im sorry if there's any really bad typos in here, I'll try to fix them if anyone spots some!

Love. Love can be defined in a lot of ways, but love is always something that’ll either break your heart or make your heart grow and prosper. Richie Tozier was really never the person to feel love. Richie never really “felt” true emotion in his life. Sure he was always smiling and had a snarky attitude to go with is smile but he can’t remember the last time he cried about something. He would tear up at painful injuries like a cut or a prick.  
His parents seemed to always be ignoring him on most days but when your parents do that you’re entire life, you kinda have to learn to raise yourself. The ignorance of his parents never really fazed him because of his friends he would always see at school to keep him company and sane. So, Richie never really had an event that made him break and cry waterfalls. That was until, Eddie Kaspbrak re-entered his life.

Everyone knew about Eddie Kaspbrak and so did Richie, Stan, Bill, Ben, and Mike. Eddie was just like Richie, a loser. He was at the bottom of the social ladder. He hung out at the weird kids corner. He was never the talk of the school. But something the world didn’t know and what the kids at school didn’t know was that Eddie was one of the bravest, toughest, and courageous kid that’s ever walked the planet. At least in Richie’s eye’s, he fought a fucking sewer clown with a broken arm for fucks sake. 

But, Eddie didn’t see himself as those adjectives. They had conversations at exactly 2:45am with the phone slipped under their covers, the cord pulled tightly from their night stand, while they tried to keep their voices down to not wake their parents,

“Richie?”, Eddie asked in his soft whispering voice.

“Yea?”, Richie responded.

“You’re always gonna be there for me right?”

Richie hesitated at first then fixed his position to comfort him for the response he was about to give,

“Of course Eddie Spaghetti!”

He could hear Eddie giggle on the other side of the phone.

“No but seriously, after that fucking clown I still have actual nightmares. Every time I have to look at my cast I remember how we all literally almost died trying to kill that thing! I remember…”, Eddie trailed off and stopped talking.

“Remember what?”

“I remember when we made that promise after we defeated it, I remember the blood promise we made in that circle”, they both felt the scar they had on their hand because of that,”So Richie, do you think at some point in our life we have to separate? A point where we sorta have to split up and move on?”

Richie chuckled, “Eddie what are you so worked up about? I mean of course there’s gonna be a time we we have to split up eventually, but that’s gonna be far away.”

“I guess you’re right, I mean we’re only kids for now so let’s make the most of it right?”

Eddie never answered his question.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Richie worked his way up the halls of Derry High School. It was the first day of October of sophomore year and everyone was already talking about their Halloween costumes. He heard the stereotypical “sexy nurse” idea about 1000 times now and wondered what Eddie was gonna be for Halloween. He couldn’t think about that, Eddie was too cool for trick or treating now. 

“YO! Rich! Over here!”

Richie immediately snapped out of his thoughts and turned to where the yelling came from. He saw a familiar group of bodies all standing in a circle at the entrance to the cafeteria. He raced over to them and waved at them all,

“Sup fellas, so what’s the scoop for today?”

 

Mike or Ben always had something to say, they were the best students of the Loser’s and probably one of the best students in school. Ben was on the decathlon team while Mike was on the football team. But today, it turns out Bill was the one with the news,

“W-well I overheard some of the kids in my English class about some kind of Halloween party-”

Suddenly, the world stops for Richie and the school stops for Eddie. Eddie walked in with his ripped jeans, untied Converse, his hands in his pockets and his hood covering the mess of hair he stopped caring about. He strided down the hallway, all eyes on him with his group of other popular kids by his side. He walked past Richie’s group of friends without even a glance.

“Richie,”

 

Richie turned to Stan who was shaking his shoulder,

“Dude you gotta stop looking at Eddie whenever he walks over here.”

Richie gave a slight chuckle,  
“Sorry Stan the Man, I can’t help myself.”

“Yea, we know.”, Stan replied in a monotone voice with the others giving both a look of concern and expectancy.

The Loser’s Club was never the same when Eddie walked out of their life, mainly Richie’s life. He felt like it happened so fast, at freshman year Eddie slowly started to hang out with the popular kids and before his eyes Eddie was now at the top of the social ladder. With the Bower’s gang gone Derry was at peace until a new group of kids reached the top of the ladder and Eddie climbed up with them. It started with Eddie not coming to their meeting spot to him not picking up the phone whenever Richie called. No one knew why Eddie bailed on such short notice, but everyone was really surprised at the fact he managed to stay on top of the social ladder after he came out as bisexual.

Derry High was definitely not a safe place for any lgbt students. Everyone always picked on the gay kid in their class calling him different nicknames and slurs. Eddie was drunk and tongue kissed a random guy at a party, and when everyone started asking he just came out and said it. The school accepted him right away and the girls swooned over him even more. Richie couldn’t figure out if it was because he was now a popular kid and now has power over most of the school or if it was because no one was really surprised.Either way he was jealous of Eddie for having that much power over the school, and he didn’t like feeling jealous because of anyone.

He always thought about the idea of Eddie calling him first at 12am and asking him to hang out, but it never happened and it never would. He began to become more and more insecure about himself and was stuck in a dilemma to try and talk to Eddie again or to Richie following Eddie’s footsteps and becoming a whole different person by ditching his friends to hang out and ultimately become friends with his tormentors. Soon Richie would slowly observe how the popular kids acted like, the kind of things they did after school and he even learned the type of alcohol Eddie always snuck in and drank a few shots of in the hallways after school. 

“S-seriously dude you g-gotta let him go.”, Bill sighed as Richie turned back around to try and find Eddie.

Richie snapped back at Bill,”You think I’m not trying?”. He took a deep sigh and forced a smile,”God..sorry guys, it’ll all good I just-”

There was never a moment in Richie’s life where he would actually be saved by the bell.

“Welp that’s the bell. Stan, Ben. I’ll see you guys at first brunch.”

He whipped out finger guns and went on his way to class.

“I swear he gets worse every time he passes by him.”, Ben murmured to himself.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Sophomore year was especially hard on Richie now because Eddie sat two rows in front of him in his Chemistry class. A whole two rows! Luckily he didn’t have Chemistry until after first brunch so it should take him a while.

Richie walked into his first class and took his seat and from here until Chemistry his mind wandered. No matter where he was, what day it was, what class he was in, he would always be thinking of Eddie. The two classes breezed by him and soon enough it was brunch. He walked over to wear he would meet Stan and Ben. Ben was the first to notice,

“I see you’re sweaty Rich, what’s up?”

“I think we can both guess what’s up.”, Stan replied.

“Hey shut the fuck up dickwads,”Richie stood silently for a moment before speaking up. “But yea you guys can probably fucking guess.”

Stan patted the spot next to him gesturing Richie to sit next to him. Richie sat down and let out a groan,

“It’s going downhill today boys.”

“Why’s that?”, Ben asked.

“I just remembered we’re getting partners for the upcoming Chemistry project.”

Stan and Ben looked at each other and shared an “Ohhhh”

Richie whipped his head to both of them, “The fuck?”

“Look Rich there’s 34 people in your Chemistry class right? There’s like a less than 2% chance you’ll get paired up with Eddie.”

“I don’t care if I get paired up with Eddie,”Richie looked away for a moment and murmured, “I just wanna see him again.”

“You just don’t wanna have to go through that awkward tension in seeing him again huh?”

“Shut the fuck up Ben”

Ben shrugged, “I’m right.”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As soon as Richie’s feet walked over to Chemistry, his heart started beating fast. He took his seat and glanced towards the door, waiting. He licked his chapped lips and felt the rush of intimidation he only felt in that class.

Then the world stopped again.

He heard his familiar chuckled and turned his head fast, there was Eddie. He strode into the classroom waving to people inside and waving bye to his friends that were still outside. Richie’s eyes followed Eddie to his seat and were locked on him, until the person that sat in front of Richie blocked his view. He relaxed himself and soon enough his Chemistry teacher, Mr. Williams, took the stand,

“Good afternoon class, how’s everyone's morning been?”

“Mine’s been great Mr.Williams. I think I did good on my English test and I didn’t even study.”, Eddie spoke out.

Half of the class gave out a chuckle while the rest of the class smiled or didn’t care.

“That’s great Eddie. Now I know all of you must be dying to find out who your lab partner is going to be for this project and I’ll get to that in a moment. I just want to remind you that this project costs up to half of your grade and you’ll have to provide evidence that you and your partner worked on this project. I don’t want to have to see only one of you doing all the work while the other doesn’t. Anyways I have already assigned each of you your partner’s for this project based on your past performances and grades from your class from last year.”

Richie picked at the scabs on his fingers the tapping of his foot went faster as he read out the partners.

“Rachel you’re partners with Greg. Kate you’re partners with John.”

Richie felt the weight of the classroom rest on his shoulders.

“Richie you will be partners with,”

He held his breath.

“Eddie.”


	2. His new partner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone I'm back with chapter two!! I want to apologize for the long wait and say that this fic is not dead!!! I'm busy with school (ofc) and I don't have time to write very much. I wanna make this fic really good so I'm try to take my time with it. I have everything planned out so I can write this faster and easier. Anyways I hope you enjoy!

“I don’t like those boys Eddie.”

Eddie whipped his head to his mom standing with her arms crossed and looking out on the street to the rest of the losers biking down the street. After the broken arm incident all his mother could talk about was how bad his friends are to him and how they bring him down,

“I swear they only hurt you when you’re around them.”

Eddie furrowed his eyebrows and responded with anger and annoyance,

“They don’t ma.”

Sonia sighed and put her right arm on her temple,

“First they cause your broken arm and now that pesky Tozier kid thinks he can just take you away from me and go wherever with the rest of those boys. I’m glad that dirty little slut is gone too.”

Eddie promptly stood up from his seat and clenched his fist,

“Mom, please. My friends didn’t cause my broken arm and my friends are the ones who cared about me the most.”

“But look what they’ve done to you Eddie! They’ve dragged you down from the person you used to be and only made you worse!”

Sonia turned around and looked behind at the practically miniscule,angered figure of her son,

“You know it’d be nice if you were with better kids who would protect you from the world unlike those sick bastards who you call friends.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Richie leaned to the open isle next to him and tried to look for some kind of reaction from Eddie, but he was instead greeted with nothing. No head turned around, no groan of annoyance, no hand up for the teacher to try and switch his partner. Richie snapped back to his upright position in his chair and waited for the next instructions. 

“Now that you’ve been assigned your partners, I want you to meet up with them and spend the rest of class getting to know them and get ideas on what to do for the Chemistry project. And remember the prompt on the board as well.”

The teacher pointed towards the big,written words on the chalkboard,  
“Sparks _Will_ Fly”

Everyone hopped out of their seats to go find their new partner and Richie hesitantly rose from his seat while Eddie swiftly stood up from his chair and made a beeline towards Richie, he managed to part the students in the isle like the Red Sea and Richie just stood there swallowing every step Eddie took towards him without moving a centimeter. Soon enough Richie and Eddie were face to face and Richie could see that Eddie never seemed to grow any taller, Eddie was still eye-level to his shoulders.

“Hey Rich.”

Eddie greeted with a calm and welcoming smile. The tone of his voice changed substantially from what he heard in the distance.

“H-hey Eds.”

Eddie smiled and stretched his arms out for a hug which Richie almost instantly went for.The hug was short but memories flooded Richie’s head as he had to bend down a little to wrap his arms around his partner. Eddie pulled away first and Richie slowly pulled back after,

“How have you been man! I haven’t seen you in a long time!”

Eddie sounded more enthusiastic than the last time he spoke to him,

“I’ve been pretty alright honestly. What about you? How’s sophomore year treating you?”

Eddie chuckled,

“It’s been really crazy dude a lot of shit already happened and it’s only October!”

Richie gave Eddie a faded smile, for both being happy to see him and sad seeing how much he’s missed out on Eddie’s life at the moment,

“That’s great dude, so umm about that..”Richie tapped the ground with his right foot and looked away from Eddie for a moment, “I feel like we should catch up right? I mean it has been a while.”

“Yea for sure that’d be great.”

“Awesome!” Richie yelled louder than he should’ve.

Eddie gave a small,nervous sounding chuckle and looked both to the left and his right to see some of his classmates staring at them, “Calm down my guy, let’s just talk about the project why don’t we?”

Richie reluctantly agrees, the conversation went from project ideas to each of the boy’s adventures during the previous summer. The familiar feeling of warmness overcame him when Eddie started talking, and he felt more relaxed. Richie had so many questions for Eddie but he just sat and listened to his new partner ramble about his first time at a house party.

“And then this guy belly flopped onto the pool table and broke it in half! It was so crazy dude but I barely remember any of it from all the alcohol I drank.” There was a slight chuckle shared between the boys followed by a silence with both of their heads looking at each other’s shoes.

Richie wanted to ask things like,  
_What does beer taste like?_  
_Where’d you get the new clothes?_  
_What’s up with your mom right now?_  
_How does it feel being popular?_  
_What happened to you Eddie?_  
_Why did you never answer my calls?_  
_Why did you ignore me and our friends?_  
_Was I too weird for you?_  
_Are things still the same?_

But out of all the things he thought of to ask only one thing came out of his mouth,  
“So any new boy or girl friends?” He gave himself a hard facepalm in his head.

Eddie shook his head, “Unfortunately not. God I can’t seem to remember my last one. Guess it’s been a while.” Eddie smiled and shot his head up which Richie soon followed. “Holy shit! Speaking of house parties, are you going to the one at Audra’s house?”

Richie’s mind searched for any information on a party at Audra’s. Then he remembered Stan was explaining it earlier this morning but he got distracted by well, the boy sitting next to him.

“Oh yea Stan was talking about it earlier today but I didn’t listen I sorta ju-”

“How is the guy? Does he still have some scars on his face?”

“Nah they’ve healed a long time ago.”

“And Bill? How’s his stutter coming along?”

“He isn’t doing it much anymore so I guess it’s getting better.”

“What about my other two boys? How’s Mike and Ben?”

“Mike’s trying out from some sports teams and Ben’s just being Ben.”

Eddie smiled and looked down at his shoes and gave out a small chuckle

“The group’s still going huh?”

“Yea, the boys and I are still pushing forward. I don’t know how Beverly’s doing though.”

Eddie made a small smile at the name he hadn’t heard in a while all while refusing to lift his head up to face Richie. 

The bell rang and everyone rushed out the door. Richie lagged behind to put his stuff in his bag and turned back to Eddie but was only greeted with an empty seat next to him. His eyes scanned the room for any signs of him and turned to the door where he saw Eddie re group with his other friends.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Richie eagerly walked to his group at lunch after barely focusing in P.E after his reunion with Eddie, he kept thinking of different things he could’ve said to Eddie in the brief time he had with him. His heart was still skipping beats from the hug that lasted no longer than 10 seconds and hearing Eddie’s deepened voice talk to him again after he left. He felt like fireworks were going off in his head and strided with a genuine smile on his face. He couldn’t process how he actually felt but all he knew was that he was happy that Eddie talked to him like he did before.

He walked to his group’s table and slammed his backpack at the end of the table to get their attention, “Gentleman, I have an announcement to make.” The boys all turned their bodies to Richie and gave their attention to him while still eating their lunch.

Richie takes a deep breath and gives out a deep sigh, “Stan your horrible at math cause guess who I’m partners with!”, Richie yelled as he threw up his arms.

Bill looked at Stan with a perplexed look and Stan looked back at Richie with a disappointed but not surprised look, “Was it-” 

Richie cut Stan off ,“You guessed it! Our old friend Eddie K!”, he groaned and sat down next to Ben while having his head in his hands. 

Ben patted his hand over Richie’s back, “You wanna talk about it buddy?” 

Richie lifted his head and looked at the other boys who were all staring at him, wanting to find out what happened. Richie straightened himself up and started his story,  
“Well first when everyone was going to see their partners Eddie walked over to me! While I barely moved a muscle!” Richie’s voice became quieter, “And then we talked about shit we did in summer and Eddie was telling me about his first house party, his first time drinking, and a just a bunch of other shit he did.”

“How is the guy right now?”, Mike asked from across the table.

“He said he was doing fine and he also said that he doesn't have a girlfriend at the moment and then he talked about the party at Audra’s that’s happening on Halloween. Speaking of which, are any of you losers going?” Richie asked putting his elbow over the table.

The boys all looked at each other and laughed. Richie shot back a confused look.

“Yo-you do rea-realize what you sa-said right? Us? At a party? Mo-more s-specifically a party at A-Audra’s?” Bill said while trying to hold back another laugh.

“Uhh yea. What’s so funny about that?”, Richie asked while being the only one not laughing for once.

“Look at us Rich, we wouldn’t be invited in the first place. Didn’t you hear me talk about this in the morning?”, Stan replied before taking a bite out of his sandwich.

“Well no but c’mon guys it’s gonna be a costume party right? No one’s gonna know if we slip on through.”

“Alright Rich but I’m just saying I’m not making a fool out of myself by showing up to one of the most popularest girl’s costume party in the position that we’re in.” Mike flicked a tiny crumb off the table, “We’re losers Rich and we don’t need a party to remind us of that.”  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Richie couldn't stop thinking about Mike’s words as he biked home.

_**We’re losers Rich and we don’t need a party to remind us of that.** _

Richie felt something inside him spark up. He thought about how Eddie must’ve gotten invited along with all the cool and popular kids in Derry. He began to feel a sort of anxiousness as he rode home, he kept trying to resent the feeling at the back of his mind like he always did in middle school whenever he got picked on. He gripped the handlebars of his bike as the word that seemed to bring him and his friends together also separated him and Eddie,

_**Loser**_

Once he got home he practically stormed into his room and looked at himself in the mirror. His shirt had holes at the bottom of it, his jeans were dirty, his hair was a mess (as always), and he wore his big and bulky glasses that never changed from middle school. He frowned at himself and thought about the clothes that Eddie would wear. 

Sometimes he wore a leather jacket, sometimes a hoodie, sometimes a sweater with a design on it, and sometimes his old shirts. Richie also noticed that Eddie was fanny-pack free, ever since he left the group he stopped wearing his fanny-pack. He guessed he would’ve gotten rid of it if he was with people like the ones he hangs out with now.

He looked around his house for any money he could find. He looked in his savings, under cushions, and even stole a couple of bucks from his parent’s savings. In the end he gathered about $25 and headed out. 

He hopped on his bike to the mall to give himself a makeover and new clothes. He was determined to change himself for the better so the least he could do was get some new clothes. He peddled hard with one thought in mind,

_I’m gonna prove to them that I can go to that party._


	3. His new shirt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I’m back! This fic is not dead!!!!!!! I won’t allow myself to not finish this since I still have faith in the potential of this fic! When the chapter two trailer dropped it gave me the motivation I needed to type this chapter up. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I’ll be sure to update this as soon as possible. I have everything planned out so it’ll be easier for me to write the chapters.

The bike ride to the mall was quite peaceful, almost too peaceful for Richie’s taste. He regretted not bringing his headphones to listen to some music along the ride. The Clash, Guns and Roses, and even Queen sounded good to listen to right now. Instead of hearing Freddie Mercury sing about taking drugs (or at least that’s what Richie thinks he’s singing about in Don’t stop me now) his ears are instead filled the peddling sounds of his bike, his own panting breath, and the occasional woosh noise he would get from a car passing him. Music would’ve been the thing takinging him away from the bustling noises of Derry, but Richie weirdly enjoyed the outside noises. Although the beat of Rock the Casbah was slowly getting stuck in his head.

He peddled on though. He expected to be there for about 45 minutes to an hour at most. He didn’t have much of a fashion sense but he knew he wanted to impress Eddie if he was going to be partners with him. Ripped jeans, a new jacket, new shirts, clean shoes, even a hat would be good choices. But this is Derry. And Richie only has $25. The most he could get from the mall would be a jacket and maybe a shirt and that’d be it.

He remembers when the mall first opened and how big of a deal it was. Sure there was only about 20 stores but that was a big thing for Derry. There was even an arcade! Bill would be so good at Dragon’s Lair and Stan knew all the quirks of the claw machines to get what he wanted. He never expected Mike to be good at any games at the arcade but he was amazing at PacMan. Everyone had their home game whenever they went in and Richie’s main game was Dig Dug. Ben’s game was Galica, which he made the high score in. Eddie wasn’t there to play arcade games with them though.

He saw the front of the mall and he biked to the front. He parked his bike and went inside. The familiar smell of fresh leather and the sound of mall music that he could never make out was swirling around his ears. He could hear the faint screams of children playing in the playground downstairs. Richie knew the first new piece of clothing he needed was new shirts cause all of his were torn or under his hell of a bed.

He walked over to nearest clothing shop he saw with decent clothing displayed on the mannequins. He walked in and started looking at his selection. Richie never really knew what his “style” was and was willing to wear anything comfy or anything he liked. He picked some shirts out of different racks and piles as he wandered through the store. He narrowed down what shirts he was getting from the price and the design. In the end, he ended up with two shirts.

Why the fuck was everything so expensive in this damn mall? Richie didn’t know and frankly he didn’t care. Before he left he wanted to do another rerun of the store to make sure he got what he needed. He walked more slower this time, really taking in the selection in front of him. Through this experience he found out he likes the plain and simple shirts with cool designs on them and cool typography effects. It might’ve been weird to the people around him but at least it was an upgrade from the Hawaiian button downs and shirts with holes and grime on them.

As he felt satisfied with the small selection of shirts he had in his hand he rounded a corner to go to the cashier and felt someone bump into him. He stumbled back from the encounter and his eyes widened as he saw who he bumped into.

“Watch where you’re going asshole-“

Eddie said out of instinct until he looked up to see Richie standing over him. Richie didn’t even pay attention to what he said and held out his hand to help him up.

“Holy shit! Eddie are you okay?”

Eddie’s realization finally came to him and he quickly stammered as he helped himself up and picked up his share of clothes.

“I-I’m fine Rich.”

“Are you sure? Sorry I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“No no really I’m.. I’m fine.”

There was a moment of silence that could only be cut with the store’s shitty sense in hip/pop music of whatever was playing on the radio. They both didn’t expect to eye each other’s clothing choices until they looked back at each other. All Eddie did was smirk and gently nodded at Richie’s clothing, while Richie was more fixed on the fact that Eddie is right in front of him.

“What’s a guy like you shopping at a store like this?”

Eddie was taken aback with Richie’s question that came on so suddenly.

“I should be asking you that. I’m only here to meet some of my folks and probably get something new y’know?”

Richie only nods although this was his first time shopping for new clothes in what feels like a whole century. 

“Looks to me you got some clothes of your own. Can I see?”, Eddie asked with one hand setting his cart of clothing down and the other reaching forward. 

Richie took one look at his choices and reluctantly gave them to Eddie. His gut was telling him that Eddie would make fun of his clothing choices for some reason and he didn’t know why. To his surprise, Eddie’s response was kind of good.

“I like them. I never expected a guy like you to be interested with these kinds of clothes.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothin.”, Eddie shrugged and gave Richie back his clothes.

“But word of advice if you buy that shirt,” Eddie pointed to the shirt that had tie-dye with the weird but very detailed picture of some kind of monster in the middle of it, “You’re gonna look like a total stoner or a druggie.”

“What do you suggest I do?”

“There’s this sick store downstairs. It’s cheaper and has way cooler shirts than these pieces of shit.”

Richie didn’t know why he felt a little hurt by his small punch to his clothing items. He had no sense in fashion in the first place, but Eddie did and that’s all Richie needed for a sense of validation in Eddie’s reply.

“C’mon. I’ll just show you it. I promise you they’re great.”

Richie’s heart skips a beat before following Eddie out of the store without putting their clothes back on the shelves where they found them.

The store Eddie was showing Richie was only an escalator trip down and a couple steps away from the store they were just at. Of course on the way there they kept talking, only small talking though. Richie continued to ask Eddie about what was going on in his life since it seemed more interesting than Richie’s. Curiosity got the best of Richie and he asked Eddie what he did over the weekend,

“The usual, I just kinda chilled out with some friends. They went to go smoke some weed out in the woods somewhere but I just went home. I've never smoked in my life and I don’t plan on it.”

Eddie’s asthma seemed to have died down for a while. Of course he still had it but he barely had any asthma attacks or anything that called for his inhaler to be used. After the whole “gazebo medication” thing happened he thought that Eddie would be much more laid back, but Eddie still had sort of a stigma for his health.

Eddie still continued to talk about his encounter with numerous drugs and how he all said no to their offer, 

“The most I’ve done is drank alcohol like at that party I’m sure you’ve heard about.”

Richie only nodded and thought about the image of Eddie getting wasted and kissing a guy. Richie kinda expected him to be bisexual after a couple signs from years of their friendship,

“Oh yea, I heard it was fucking insane.”

“I know right? But my plan wasn’t to get drunk, like why would that ever be a plan of mine? Anyways, it kinda escalated from one sip to full on red cups and jello shots. Before I knew it I made my way to the hottest guy at the party and just went all over him.”

“Dude that sounds kinda fucking cool.”

“In retrospect it does, and i'm sure everyone else thought it was cool too. But it gave me the opportunity to at least be out to the school and not get bullied for it so that’s a plus.”

“Yea, I’m happy for you Ed’s.”

“Don’t call me that.”

Before Richie could even cut in with some snarky remark, Eddie pointed to the store he was talking about. Richie had seen this store a couple of times but never thought that Eddie would ever shop here. For one reason it was a skater store and knew Eddie’s mom would have a heart attack if Eddie ever went skateboarding. The other reason was that Richie never skated himself but he couldn’t deny that the idea of skating crossed his mind at some point. 

“Really? This store?”, Richie asked as he crossed his arms and looked inside of the store from where he was standing with Eddie, “This place looks expensive just from the outside.”

“No dude it’s cool really. I come in here all the time.”

“Your mom really let’s you shop here?”

“No, of course not. I shouldn’t even be out right now.”

Richie whipped his head to Eddie who was smiling and tapping his foot. He looked at him in disbelief as he didn’t believe what he was hearing. Eddie’s rebellious attitude always struck Richie even though he’s seen Eddie do way worse than sneak out, his new attitude and antics were always surprising.

Before Richie could reply to that comment, Eddie pulled him into the store by his arm and guided him to the section he mostly picked from. The selection in front of them consisted of skater shirts with all sorts of decals on them. One had a screaming hand, one had a face melting, and another had the word Thrasher on it.

“Go ahead. Take one and look at the price.”

Richie followed Eddie’s command and picked up the one with the screaming hand first since that was the one that caught his eye. He looked at the price tag that was buried in the shirt’s fabric,

“$35? You said this store was cheap.”

“Don’t worry about the price. It looks sick huh? Everyone’s wearing these.”

“By everyone you mean only you?”

“Shut the fuck up I’m serious. Do you want that one or not?”

Richie looked at the shirt, looked at Eddie, and then looked at the other selections on the racks of the store. This wasn’t really his style but he did come here to try something new and if Eddie said everyone’s wearing these and they’re really cool, why not?

“Sure Eddie. I bet the ladies are gonna be all over this.”

“With a face like yours? I’m not so sure Richie.”

Richie put his hand up to his heart and replied sarcastically and dramatically, “Wow Eddie. I’m hurt you would say something like that.”

Eddie shrugged and nodded over to the now empty line for the cashier. They walked over and as Richie was taking out his wallet, the cashier waved to Eddie and Eddie waved back.

“Ayyeee! Eddie! What’s up man?”

“Roger! My guy!”

The two shared a hug and had casual small talk. The “hows life?” And the “good as always” followed by a laugh until the cashier finally glances over at Richie,

“I’m guessing your friend here wants that shirt?”

Eddie gave a small nod and Roger nod and Roger gave him one back.

“Anything for my beer buddy! Now get out of here before my boss catches me.”

“You’re the best Roger! I’ll be sure to bring you extra for this!”

They waved while Richie stared at both dumbfounded but amazed at the display he just saw. He took one more look at Eddie to make sure he wasn’t in a dream of some sort before walking out with him. When Richie caught up to him he tapped Eddie on the shoulder while snapping off the price tag on his new shirt,

“Seriously Spaghetti man? Did that just happen?”

“You getting a shirt for free because of me? Hell yea.”

“Well when you said cheap this ain’t exactly what I expected. But I mean c’mon you knew that guy!”

“Roger? Oh yea! He hooks me up with my shit and I hook him up with his shit. And by shit I mean well, the good good.”

Eddie’s hand made a gesture of smoking a cigarette and then another one of popping pills in his mouth.  
Richie only smirked and slightly nudged Eddie in the shoulder,

“Awwww is my Eddie a drug dealer now?”

“Only on the weekends sweetie.”

Both boys shared a laugh and continued walking through the mall in silent before Richie spoke up. 

“So what now? Don’t you have to go home before your mom flips her shit?”

“Don’t worry about her. She lays on that recliner so much she’s basically a fucking fossil. The only time she’ll get up is if I’m not home before the streetlights come on so we’ve got some time.”

“You got somewhere we could sit for a while?”

“I know a place. Just follow me.”

Eddie lead Richie through the mall to the parking structure outside. They walked a couple ways into the structure before going up the flight of stairs to the top floor. The pitter patter of their shoes filled the empty lots with their echos the more they went up and the faster they went. Once at the top of the structure, Eddie gestured Richie to come closer to him as he stopped at a blocked off corner of the parking structure with a painted brick wall surrounding it and an equally metallic and rusted door that Eddie tried to open before realizing it was locked. The door was at perfect height for Eddie but smaller than Richie so that he could look over it. It was pretty shitly designed if this corner was for restricting the public but then again Richie grew to be a whole tree so maybe it was just him. Richie stood puzzled at what kind of place Eddie had just taken him to,

“Eddie where even are we?”

Eddie didn’t even acknowledge Richie’s question as he hopped over the door and unlocked it from the other side. When the door opened, Eddie held the door open for Richie and held his arm out to lead him inside. When Richie stepped inside he realized it was really just the roof’s ventilations systems from the parking lot and restaurants next to it. Exhaust vents, pipes, and wires were all strewn about around them and the smell of the food coming from the restaurant’s vents were accumulating around them. It was a pretty spacious place, excluding the ventilation systems that took up some space, and it even had those walls surrounding it which made it more private. Richie took some time to look around where he was standing while putting his hands on his hips,

“What kind of fucking crackhead corner did you just bring me to?”

Eddie slowly closed the door behind him and walked over to Richie, “I come up here all the time to hang out with my friends.”

“Are we even allowed to be here?”

Eddie only laughed, “Stop asking questions Richie! Just chill for a second.”

Richie frowned at the floor and bit his lip, regretting asking another question. He followed Eddie around twisted exhaust vents to a corner on the roof. Eddie sat down in the corner and patted the ground next to him to signal Richie to sit down next to him. Richie followed his que and made himself comfortable next to Eddie. He started tapping his foot thinking of something to say without it being a question. For some reason this was beginning to be really hard for Richie so he did what he did best.

He pointed to a cloud at the sky, “Hey Eddie that cloud looks like your dick.”

“How do you know what my dick looks like?”

“Your mom told me mine was better than yours.”

“Why would ever wanna fuck my mom?”

They laughed but Richie’s laugh came from the embarrassment and awkwardness he felt after that joke didn’t land. _Why would he wanna fuck Sonia Kaspbrak? Disgusting. She’s not even hot. _  
———__

____

____

Time seemed to pass by slowly during their hangout in the air ducts of the parking lot roof. They explored a little bit finding a half empty box matches, empty beer bottles, and other trash some other rebellious teens probably left behind when they came here. They made jokes over abandoned clothing articles like a pair of underwear they found behind an air duct. Richie picked it up with the tips of his first finger and his thumb and threw it Eddie. Eddie flinched back and called Richie disgusting for even touching it.

They hung out for a little more before Eddie realized that the sun was starting to go down. Eddie needed to hurry home so they walked out of the corner they were in and back to the front of the mall. They got their bikes from the bike rack and biked to their neighborhood. They bikes relatively fast since the sun was beginning to go down quickly and Eddie could not be even remotely late. Although Richie felt that the bike ride back was reliving, he kinda missed biking with Eddie. Specifically Eddie.

They stopped at Eddie’s house first and Eddie threw his bike on his front lawn before rushing up his steps and unlocking the door. Before stepping in he waved Richie goodbye,

“I’ll see you at school!”

“Give your mom a kiss on the cheek for me will ya?”

Eddie smiled and rolled his eyes before stepping in his house. Richie let out an exhale of relief and slouched on his bike. He ran his hand through his hair and slapped it back on his bike handle before riding home.

Richie opened the door to his house quietly and slowly, not wanting to cause a big scene. Went was on the couch asleep while Maggie could be heard talking to someone in the phone in the kitchen. Richie lightly jogged upstairs and threw his new shirt on his bed. It was slightly dirty and wrinkled from the fact he gripped onto it on his bike handles while riding back. The imprint of the bike handle pattern was imprinted on the back of the shirt on one side. He knew he would have to clean the shirt up a bit before wearing it.


End file.
